City provides too little from budget for the poor

City provides too little from budget for the poor

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An observer criticized the city administration on Friday for only
allocating Rp 28 billion of a total Rp 11 trillion of the 2003
city budget for the underprivileged but allocating Rp 135 billion
for the Public Order Office, notorious for its evictions of the
poor.

"It's ironic and regrettable that the administration has
allocated Rp 135 billion to evict poor people and allotted Rp 26
billion or 0.2 percent of the total budget for the poor,"
sociologist La Ode Ida, chairman of the Indonesian Forum for
Budget Transparency (Fitra), said in a discussion.

La Ode said most of the Rp 11 trillion budget would be spent
on administrative and operational matters, including Rp 3.98
trillion for general administration, Rp 3.6 trillion for
operations and maintenance and Rp 2.24 trillion for security.

He opined that the administration did not focus on the social
and economic problems of the city residents, such as poverty,
unemployment, security and transportation.

Also ironic is the allotment of a fund for Governor Sutiyoso,
Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo and 85 city councillors, which amounts
to a total of Rp 105 billion this year.

"How could 87 people received two percent of our total budget
when compared with the 12 million people of Jakarta," La Ode
said.

He questioned the allocation of 90 million a year or Rp
250,000 a day for the governor's "morning coffee" and Rp 100
million for health allowance.

"It would be better and cheaper for the administration to
provide health insurance than allocating that amount of money,"
La Ode, who is also a lecturer at the University of Indonesia,
said.

He also queried the unclear allocation of Rp 42 billion for an
honorarium and transportation for city councillors and Rp 1
billion for councillors' clothes.

"It's sad that we allocate such a huge amount of money for a
few people while only Rp 26 billion is allocated for the 1.2
million poor people in the city," he said.

After reviewing 14 bound documents on the budget, Fitra found
that some Rp 540 billion of the budget could easily be corrupted
due to unclear explanation of its use.

This includes a Rp 3.3 billion contingency fund for the
governor and Rp 2.8 billion for a similar fund for the deputy
governor.

The budget also allocated Rp 414 billion for the city
secretary, which would then be donated to political parties and
social organizations, and Rp 114 billion for the secretary's
emergency fund.

Other unclear items allocated in the budget include an Rp 8.5
billion allowance for city councillors and Rp 3 billion for the
city empowerment office.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Development Planning Office secretary
Nurfaqih claimed the budget proposal could still be reviewed
since it had not been approved by the council yet.

"The proposal, such as the budget for governor, could still be
reviewed. We found some technical errors in the proposal,"
Nurfaqih said in the discussion.

He claimed the drafting of the budget proposal involved the
public, including Fitra and the economic and management
development institute of the University of Indonesia.

Governor Sutiyoso is scheduled to officially submit the budget
proposal to the council on Monday. It is expected to be approved
by the end of this month.

But many doubt that it would be possible to discuss the budget
proposal in only two weeks, which might result in a delay in the
implementation of city projects this year.